The Pi Trivia Game

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Finally this is your chance to pay tribute to the magnificent transcendental number that we have all grown to love! Here are 25 questions (given to you 5 at a time), picked randomly from my pi question database. Get ready for the thrill of your lifetime, the ultimate challenge, The Pi Trivia Game!

1. The world pi-recitation record is held by Chao Lu of China. He was able to recite pi from memory to approximately how many decimal places?

Six thousand.
Seventeen million.
Three hundred fourteen thousand one hundred fifty nine.
Five hundred.
Sixty-eight thousand.

2. Which of the following fractions most closely approximates pi?

2549491779/811528438
22/7
864/275
5371151999754/1709690779483
3927/1250

3. What is the earliest known reference to pi?

the Rosetta Stone, inscribed in approximately 200 BC
a Middle Kingdom papyrus scroll, written around 1650 BC by Ahmes the scribe
Euclid's Elements, written in the 3rd century BC
The Uselessness of Pi and its Irrational Friends, written in 1994 AD
the Bible

4. The following are all mnemonics for remembering the first few digits of pi (the number of letters in each word corresponds to a digit of pi). Which of these was written in 1995 by Michael Keith?

Sir, I send a rhyme excelling
in sacred truth and rigid spelling.
Numerical sprites elucidate
For me the lexicon's dull weight.
Now I, even I, would celebrate
In rhymes inapt, the great
Immortal Syracusan, rivaled nevermore,
Who in his wondrous lore,Passed on before,Left men his guidance
How to circles mensurate.
But a time I spent wandering in bloomy night; Yon tower, tinkling chimewise, loftily opportune.
Out, up, and together came sudden to Sunday rite,
The one solemnly off to correct plenilune.
How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics. All of thy geometry, Herr Planck, is fairly hard.
Poe, E. -
Near A Raven
Midnights so dreary, tired and weary,
Silently pondering volumes extolling all by-now obsolete lore.
During my rather long nap - the weirdest tap!
An ominous vibrating sound disturbing my chamber's antedoor.
"This", I whispered quietly, "I ignore".

5. Pi is ubiquitous in the branch of mathematics known as statistics. The maximum height of what famous curve is equal to 1/sqrt(2*pi)?

a sine curve
the bell (Gaussian) curve for a standard normal distribution
the step function y = int(x) between x=-17 and x=0
the Sarstedt curve
Euler's population density curve

eve@eveandersson.com